Rajahmundry: The earth suddenly rose by about five metres on a 500-metre stretch on the approach road to the Polavaram project along the Mula Lanka dump yard on Saturday morning, creating panic among locals and workers.
Several electric poles were uprooted and overhead power lines snapped, disrupting power supply to nearly 25 Agency villages in East and West Godavari districts.
Project authorities dismissed it as deformation of loose soil that was dumped to form an elevated road to the project site.
An official attributed the deformation to two reasons. The first was the lack of adequate moisture in the soil as dry weather was prevailing in the area for the last few days which resulted in the settlement of soil.
The second reason was the dumping of massive quantities of earth and rocks excavated from the project site. WIth the soil being dry, the pressure caused by the dumping caused the upheaval.
Earlier, authorities had dumped rocks excavated while clearing the ground for the construction of the spillway at the dump yard. The pressure from the rocks pushed the loose soil from underneath towards a road and elevating it.
Authorities said the the movement of tippers with carrying capacity of 100 tonnes and above on the road also caused its settlement, resulting in the soil upheaval.
